NATO Ships Complete Romanian Naval Exercise

The NATO Group includes flagship Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan, Spanish frigate SPS Victoria, Bulgarian frigate BGS Drazki, Romanian frigate ROS Regele Ferdinand and Turkish frigate TCG Gimlik and joined ships, submarines, aircraft and soldiers from Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and the United States to conduct the exercise off the coast of Romania in the Black Sea.

The exercise participants enhanced interoperability by practicing NATO standard procedures for defence against aircraft, ship or submarine attack as well as asymmetric threats that can take many forms.

NATO ships ROS Regele Ferdinand and ESPS Victoria conducted a boarding operation drill on May 8th. During the exercise the Romanian Air Force provided three MiG 21 Lancers and the Royal Air Force contributed three Typhoon jets to serve as simulated air threats. Romanian Land Forces participated in the exercise for the first time with a detachment of infantry from the Mechanized Brigade 9 in Mărăşeşti. A specific period of the exercise focused on honing anti-submarine warfare skills in a coordinated effort by ships and maritime patrol aircraft from Turkey and the United States.

Commander Utley, Commander of SNMG2 said “This Exercise enables the NATO Allies to work together and build individual and collective capability whilst delivering reassurance to Allied nations bordering the Black Sea” “Closer cooperation and communication is one key element of this interoperability, an example of that is demonstrated today in that I arrived via a UK Navy helicopter which landed on a Romanian warship, whilst conducting an Anti-submarine exercise against a Turkish submarine, all this activity being safely controlled by a multinational staff.”